We are very concerned by the growing clampdown on dissent in Iran, including through the use of national security legislation.
In the last year, a large number of human rights defenders have been accused of
“acting against national security”.
This has included trade unionists, such as Mansour Ossanlou and Mahmud Salehi, peaceful protesters including teachers protesting for a living wage, a large number of women arrested in spring/summer 2007 for protesting in favour of equal rights, and other human rights activists such as Emaddedin Baghi, an anti-death penalty campaigner.
Others have been sentenced for related offences such a
“propaganda against the system”
—most recently, a group of 54 Baha’is, but also a number of students arrested in July 2007 in connection with an article in a student magazine.
We have raised all of these cases through the EU, highlighting the fact that individuals have essentially been sentenced for non-violent protest, and calling on the Iranian Government to support the right to freedom of expression, as it is committed to under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The UN General Assembly passed a resolution about the human rights situation in Iran in December last year, expressing very serious concern about
“ongoing, systemic and serious restrictions of freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and freedom of opinion and expression ... and increasing harassment, intimidation and persecution of political opponents and human rights defenders from all sectors of Iranian society”.